Meeting of the Lonely Hearts Club
by fananicfan
Summary: A short piece written for the HBX February challenge.  My version is about what Harm and Mac do for Valentine's Day when neither one of them are involved with someone else.


Disclaimer: JAG and its characters are the property of Belisarius Productions, CBS and Paramount. No copyright infringement intended.

This story is AU and in my mind would take place after Dalton and Annie were gone, but before Brumby and Renee showed up.

The age of Chloe in this may be a little off, so humor me and roll with it, please.

**Meeting of the Lonely Hearts Club **

**by: fananicfan**

**FEBRUARY 14th **

**MAC'S APARTMENT**

**GEORGETOWN**

Valentine's Day had rolled around again, and Harm was standing outside Mac's door.

He wished that he'd seen her at the office today to confirm their ... what would you call it?

It certainly wasn't an annual meeting, since, if either one of them was in a relationship, they didn't meet. However, if they were both unattached, they had a standing date for dinner.

'Well, the "standing" part fit, but not the "date" part,' Harm thought, raising his arm to knock on her door.

"Date" implied some kind of romantic interlude, especially today, which was _not_ the nature of their relationship.

'Not that he'd mind having a "date" with her. In fact, he thought that he'd been hinting at it for a couple of months now, but she either didn't want to cross the line of friendship or she wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone after her most recent break up,' he thought, finally balancing the take-out order and the bakery box in one hand in order to knock on her door.

No, tonight wasn't a date. It was just two single friends who needed to eat and wanted to avoid the overcrowded restaurants filled with couples cooing at each other over dishes that had been renamed something cutesy like Spicy Lemon Lovers Chicken for the night instead of the usual name of Lemon Pepper Chicken that it was called the other 364 days of the year.

He'd knocked once, but with no immediate response from inside, he waited before knocking a second time.

His pause between knocks caused him to think about the origins of Valentine's Day.

Who'd come up with such a crazy idea anyway? How long had single people been tortured by suddenly feeling lonely because they didn't have someone to give or receive flowers, candy or a card?

Harm decided that it must go back centuries and that a woman must have come up with Valentine's Day.

It seemed only logical to him that, before the invention of the phone, for instance, when you couldn't talk to your sweetheart any time of the day or night, a woman would want to know who or how many potential suitors she might have, and with no way of hearing from them on a regular basis, a woman created Valentine's Day so that the men of the area could bring gifts to her in order to show their interest in courting her.

It was either that or it had been invented by florists, candy makers and greeting card manufacturers as a way to improve their sales after the strong sales of the Christmas holiday.

Harm preferred to think that it had a logical beginning rather than one that stemmed from greed for the almighty dollar.

He gave the origins of the day a less cynical start, thinking that perhaps it was a man who'd come up with the idea as a way to show the object of his affection his devotion publicly by way of making his intentions known to her - or her father if he were marriage minded.

Perhaps, less romantically, letting the other men of the village or town know that this woman was now taken and off limits to them.

Either way, it provided a logical means for a man to declare his love publicly without opening himself up to ridicule by other men for letting a woman get to them so badly that they'd spend a week's pay on such foolish things as flowers, candy or an expensive dinner.

Harm knocked a second time.

Just a second passed before he heard, "Just a minute" come from inside her apartment. However, he wasn't sure that the voice was Mac's since there was something strange about it.

Moments later, the door opened, and Mac stood there dabbing at her puffy red eyes.

That was why she hadn't sounded like herself. She'd been crying.

"Harm, what are you doing here?" Mac asked.

"It's February 14th, the date for our meeting of the lonely hearts club," Harm said softly, wondering if her tears were caused by a man whom she'd been seeing and just hadn't mentioned to him or if she were upset by something else.

"Oh, that's tonight?" Mac inquired, wondering why she could tell the time without a watch, but knowing what the date was gave her problems.

"Yes," Harm began, but paused before asking with some trepidation, "You aren't seeing someone who I don't know about, are you?"

"No. I'm not. I just didn't realize that today was Valentine's Day. I mean, I knew that it was February ... never mind. Come in," she said, stepping aside to let him enter her apartment.

"If you have plans or would like to be alone ... I understand. I would've reminded you at the office or made sure that you remembered and verified that you didn't have plans, but I didn't see you at work today." He sighed. "I could've called before I headed over though," he said like he'd just gotten the idea in the last two seconds.

"I don't have other plans and whatever you have in that to-go bag smells delicious, so get in here so that we can eat."

"If you're sure that you feel up to it," Harm commented with a shrug.

"Oh, this," she said, lifting her hand containing a now damp Kleenex. "The reason why I was crying is the perfect place to start our meeting of the lonely hearts club," she said, motioning for him to step into her apartment.

"I didn't know that you were seeing someone," Harm stated, passing by her as he moved towards her dining table.

"Not me, Chloe ... " Mac said, closing the door. "Let me go freshen up, and I'll tell you about it over dinner."

**MINUTES LATER**

Harm had pulled the items from his carry-out bag and was now sitting with a dinner-sized Styrofoam container in front of him as Mac approached her dining table where she spied a brown Beltway Burger to-go bag waiting for her.

"You sure do know how to cheer me up," Mac said as she moved closer to the table, eyeing her dinner.

"I didn't know that you needed cheering up when I stopped there, but I'm glad it helps. Why do you need cheering up anyway?"

"For starters, in court today, I got walloped," Mac said before sitting down next to him and pulling her dinner from the bag. "Then, when I get home, I had a letter from Chloe in my mailbox."

"I would think that a letter from Chloe would make you happy, not cause you to need to be cheered up," Harm stated with some confusion.

"Normally, it would have," Mac began before taking a bite of her barely warm French fry. "However, this letter was about a dance at her school last week... her first Sadie Hawkins dance."

"She couldn't get a boy to go with her?" Harm questioned, wondering why Mac would be upset that the young girl hadn't been able to find a date.

"No, she asked the boy who she likes, and he said yes. She said that she had a beautiful dress and she was so looking forward to the evening."

Okay, Harm was having a real hard time grasping what could be upsetting Mac about Chloe's letter.

"That can't be the end of the story," Harm commented.

"It isn't. Chloe's letter went on to say that the evening was perfect until Sheila showed up at the dance."

'Sheila?' Harm questioned internally. Was he supposed to know this person? Had Mac mentioned her before to him when telling him how Chloe was doing?

"Sheila came with a boy, but Chloe said that she spent most of her time flirting with her date ... and then she kissed him."

"Chloe had her first kiss - " Harm stated, the 'that's sweet' being cut off when Mac interrupted his sentence.

"No, Sheila kissed Chloe's date," Mac stated, sounding angry at Sheila and annoyed by Harm's inability to follow a simple story.

"Oh," Harm said, now understanding. "What did Chloe do?"

"She said that she didn't know what to do. She was angry at Sheila for kissing her boyfriend, and embarrassed that she'd done it so publicly and in front of her. She was also heartbroken because her date didn't push her away and kissed Sheila back."

It was now obvious to Harm that Mac had been crying out of sympathy for Chloe's first heartbreak.

"The worst part is that Chloe thinks that love stinks and never wants to go out on another date ever again," Mac said sadly.

"Young love is the easiest to get over. She'll be fine."

Mac looked at Harm strangely. His words sounded more like an admission of some kind than comfort.

"You remember the first time that someone stomped on your heart, don't you?" Harm asked, and, without thought, he reached across the table and started to rub her arm.

"You think that love stinks and you never want to set yourself up for that pain again, but then time passes or some new cute girl, well, in your case, guy in school catches your eye, and you change your mind," Harm explained.

Mac put her hand on top of his, calming the motion of his hand on her arm. "I think that I was probably too drunk to care at the time. What about you? Who was the first girl to ever break your heart?"

Harm leaned back in his chair, withdrawing his hand in the process.

He really hadn't planned to share events of his past with her, but it seemed like something that she needed to hear and it had been a long time ago now, so telling her wouldn't bring up any painful memories.

"The first girl to break my heart had to be my fifth grade crush, Susan Rogers. I told her that I liked her and stole a kiss. The next day, I caught Johnny Ford kissing her."

"Is this Susan Rogers responsible for you not being a fan of love, or was it someone after her who kept you from getting to the altar?" Mac asked before taking a bite of her burger.

"I don't think that a woman is responsible. I think it's me. I've been in love. I just don't think that I've ever been in the happily-ever-after kind of love yet," Harm stated sincerely.

"I admire that about you ... that you make the distinction between having deep feelings for someone and being in love."

There was silence between them as each took a bite of their dinner.

Once Mac had swallowed her food, she asked softly, "Harm do you believe that love, I mean the happily-ever-after kind, really happens to people?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe that it'll ever happen for you?" Mac asked.

"I hope so..." Harm replied with a soft smile. "...though my track record would certainly suggest otherwise."

"I don't think that I'll ever find love ... at least not the kind that I once thought existed ... the kind where a man kisses you and you just know that he's the one."

"I don't know, Mac. You're beautiful, and there's still time. I think you will," Harm said reassuringly.

"My track record would indicate otherwise." Mac paused. "Let's face it. The longest successful relationship that I've ever had with a man is the one that I have with you."

Harm snorted.

"Come to think of it, the longest relationship that I've ever had with a woman is mine with you."

"You don't think ..." Mac started, but stopped herself. It was a silly notion, and she wasn't going to make a fool of herself.

"Do I think what, Mac?" Harm questioned after a few seconds when she didn't continue with her thought.

"Never mind. It was a silly idea," Mac replied, unwilling to admit that her thought had been, 'Do you think that, since we've weathered ups and downs and our relationship is still in tact, there might be something more to it ... that maybe we're meant to be more to each other than friends?'

Harm wondered what she was thinking. Actually, he was wondering if her thoughts had been along the same lines as his thoughts had been ... that two people who fought as much as they did and still managed to not only remain friends, but be close enough that it was acceptable to show up for a meeting of the lonely hearts club without calling first could fall in love.

They each remained in thought, allowing silence to fill the room until they'd finished eating their dinner.

"Do you want to stay and watch a movie?" Mac asked.

She was feeling better than when he'd arrived and didn't want him to rush off like he had after their first lonely hearts club meeting before she'd met Dalton.

Dalton's name echoed in her head.

'I thought that he might be the one, but how wrong I was about that,' she thought, not hearing Harm's answer to staying to watch a movie.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" That was what penetrated her thoughts and brought her back to the present.

"Tomorrow?" she said like a question.

"Yes, I can't stay tonight. I have to finish writing my opening argument for court in the morning, but I have to eat, so we could have dinner tomorrow night. Restaurants will be safe again, so we could go out, or you could come to my place, and I'll fix dinner."

"You'll cook dinner for me?"

"Sure!" Harm replied enthusiastically.

"Then you're on. What time should I come by?"

"1900 okay with you?"

"1900 it is. I'll see you then."

**NEXT NIGHT **

After a wonderful dinner, they moved to his sofa to have a slice of chocolate cream pie while continuing to enjoy their pleasant conversation.

With their pie gone, they placed their empty plates on the coffee table, and when they began to sit back, Harm noticed a streak of the confection on her face.

"You have some pie," he said, reaching up to clear the smudge from its location near the corner of her mouth.

The pad of his thumb wiped the small streak of chocolate mixed with whipped cream away, but the way that she'd leaned into his touch sent electricity though him.

He leaned in and then he kissed her.

She offered no resistance. In fact, she reciprocated.

When the need for air forced them to part, Mac was dazed.

She couldn't explain the tingling sensation that she'd felt during that kiss, but it had filled her with a light-headed euphoria that she'd never experienced before in her life.

Figuring that he'd just ruined the longest relationship that he'd ever had with a woman, he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm not, but if we're going to keep doing it, there won't be any reason to have any more meetings of the lonely hearts club."

"That's true," Harm acknowledged.

"I don't think that I'm going to miss them, will you?"

"Not at all. I think that this new club that we've just started will be a lot more fun," he said as the corners of his mouth started to turn up to form that cocky grin of his.

**THE END **


End file.
